i'm sorry there's a big. panics markets lead america's plunge off the fiscal cliff while the republicans and democrats haggle over how to pull the safety call. as the number of dead in the moscow plane crash rises to five and investigated to begin the painstaking probe into the accident we take you step by step through the sequence of events. plus the painful austerity in europe and up he will across the arab world to the rise of political awareness in russia as the world turns a new page to twenty thirty r.t. recaptures all the twists and turns of the ag going in.

and i welcome you watching r.t. live from moscow with me and. the united states has all but begun its punch off the fiscal cliff at least on the markets and with last minute talks between republicans and democrats falling apart yet again america could be in for a hard landing wall street is in full retreat seeing five straight days of selloffs as panicky investors jump ship on new year's day six hundred billion dollars worth of tax hikes and federal cuts are slated to come into force in america and a deal to avert that is still nowhere in sight though as artie's reports the makings of this crisis were there for all to see. the u.s. congress created this cliff situation when they failed to agree on a budget that would help the country reduce its deficit and its you monger's debt

and what they did was what they usually do they put off those important decisions until a certain deadline that deadline is now so they came up with this scary word cliff to create lots of drama around which should be the ordinary maybe somewhat boring working process of any congress or parliament that is to agree on a budget the need to deadlines so the cliff which actually describes the mode in which the congress is working their inability to make decisions until the very very last minute the cliff that u.s. lawmakers have artificially created could become very real for the american people the vast majority of them over one thousand government programs would be cut it would hit the unemployed very hard they would stop getting unemployment benefits there would be other automatic cuts and tax hikes that would mostly affect those who are financially insecure but everyone knows even if the lawmakers don't meet the january first headline they can pass measures retroactively and at the end of

the day they will decide something but congress seems to love the drama of the whole cliff situation they have all the attention in the wall and literally the whole world the media of course help them hype it up and with the countdown they started two months ago and while politicians here are enjoying all that attention turning last minute scoring political points the hype around the scary word cliff is already hurting the economy experts say it's affecting business and consumer confidence if wall street is any indicator stocks have been falling for a fifth straight day on friday they called it a fiscal cliff slide other markets are reaching signals of certainty coming from the u.s. oil prices have soared in the asian markets ahead of a last minute effort in washington tool. a deal on fiscal cliff that's what you read in the news so this whole charade in washington could have implications on many levels and the fiscal cliff which some call a product of u.s.

lawmakers imagination could become a self-fulfilling prophecy syrian rebels press on with the offensive in the north of the country they reportedly take over north pumping station after days of intense fighting amid calls for dialogue from russia and the international peace envoy and is it trying to find a way through a complex tax system wasn't enough in the u.k. and millions have been paying through the nose for telephone services to help them navigate it that's coming up like. another crew member has died after a passenger jet crashed at one of moscow's busiest ports that brings the number of dead to five while three others are still fighting for their lives in hospital the redwings plane skidded off the runway and plowed into the embankment of a major highway on saturday experts believe bad weather brake failure or simply pilot error could have led to the tragedy. and now looks how the events unfolded

the twenty ninth of december the last working day of two thousand and twelve in russia. business is. forgotten until the next year families. jump into their cars and escape the busy capital. highway heads to the west of moscow region where most of the luxury estates and country houses are located traffic jams are common this time of the day and this time of the year but want to lock the road is almost. passengers come out of the car to see what the sound was a big sack to see anything but not this. just minutes before that and similar to all four white number ninety six i think is

when the little i post the first times it's unsuccessful the plane makes a wrong over the airport and begins to send in for a second time when they sign the plane touches down but can stall the experienced crew is that moment very slightly nose already they will not make it the jets reaches the end of the runway runs into the fans but still continues moving it finally stops after overrunning the asteroid by four hundred meters the plane breaks into three parts and tail is lying over the whole year the road people can easily see its number or a stick for four seven the middle paul just bog misses away the cockpit already partially damaged after the crash with a science falls right at the edge of the highway it's a miracle indeed the road is empty at that time this is a ten lane highway the wreckage is only on one of the lanes for traffic continues on at least three here even after the tragedy does fashion by slowing down to see

what happens they lost it and left lane called street light all the roads are very road they usually drive every friday and everybody sings as that moment was even eyes have come minutes earlier or was eve i have been on that airplane people come out of their cars and try to help out those in the cockpit how ready that. weather conditions technical failure and pilot error are among investigators main causes of the incident was most likely a combination of reasons behind a fatal crash however a plane hitting a. easy highway in one of europe's biggest cities could have a much more devastating trail of destruction there wasn't enough log for everyone on that saturday evening. party moscow region well if you want more expert opinion on what may have caused that crash we want to

find out more about the plane had to r.t. dot com or that much more is lined up for you there. now fighting between syrian government troops and opposition forces has intensified with new clashes in the north of the country the rebels have also reportedly captured an oil pumping station that is the international envoy for peace in syria reiterated that dialogue is the only way out of the crisis this was fully supported by russia's foreign minister sergei lavrov to to discuss the matter in moscow. the editor in chief of the syria tri be believes the rebels are preparing the ground for foreign intervention here all of the opposition will never win over the syrian army they were established to create chaos and the fear of the country for what it in direction now for intervention is might have. been we should come up with him but they are trying to leave it was difficult for the syrian army and for the syrian government what should be mixed is dialogue between all syrians but as we see some

of the superpowers in the world are still not ready to to pressure the opposition for dialogue this lean more or this can lead to violence the need to see for for the real where there is no pressure or prevent as i have. to leave there whatever they do. we will be able to control the situation and after that they have to understand that there is no solution but with dialogue and with the who are the best of the. u.s. ambassador with a price on his head al qaeda in yemen on this is three kilograms of gold the life of america is a mystery to the country that's on line for you plus. overweight maybe in the u.k. should set a good example by having surgery and stop eating junk food that is what a new official report is expected to suggest read more about it at r.t.

dot com. now there are lots of things you might want to spend your hard earned cash on this holiday season but finding your tax return probably isn't among them however millions of people in britain are doing just that and are having to pay a premium rate for official telephone helplines. your annual tax return of her says that many adults find utterly daunting and perplexing luckily for the british public the tax man has a whole array of telephone helplines to help and advise people on how to fill in the piles of forms needed for it getting through to someone might be a bit of a problem though britain is spending watchdog says that last year some twenty

million phone calls went on the answered by the government tax office and of those lucky enough to get through between the months of april and september over six million people had to wait for over ten minutes just to get an answer from someone and i've decided to give him revenue and customs premium priced phone line a call to find out how long it would take me to get through to them. i've spent over three and a half minutes waiting for someone to pick up the phone. last year customer spent an estimated thirty three million pounds in call charges just waiting to get through to somebody at the tax department exposing what critics call a shameful level of service him revenue and customs have released a statement saying that they've lowered the cost of calls to one of their premium phone lines the most popular one they also say that they're aware that they weren't able to deliver the standard of service that they're committed to in the past

however they're now answering over ninety percent of the calls that are made to them but ultimately critics say that it's the complicated u.k. tax code that spans over seventeen thousand pages that british citizens find it so hard to get their head around and it's the telephone providers that are responsible for the helplines that it cashing in on all the tax confusion. now on but with more news few wouldn't start. so how much does it take to get into russian politics how many hours of hard work and how many patriotic deeds does it take to become one of the people who make the decisions in the world's largest country well i'll tell you how much it takes

exactly seven point five million euros russia's federal investigative committee has a stablish that allegedly hey of and constantine should show from faire russia and the commies prospectively promised for a fee to get a businessman on to their party's electoral lists getting him a spot in the lower house of the duma the investigators have forwarded the state duma an official request to strip the two m.p.'s of their parliamentary immunity and you're darn right they better street have their parliamentary immunity stripped i mean what's worse than government corruption some people in the government being so corrupt they can actually sell the government itself to someone for a fee so positions in parliament corruption on this high of a level needs to be punished severely breaking rocks in siberia or worse sounds pretty good to me tolerating flagrant corruption does not a great civilization make but that's just my opinion.

he survived the atrocities. to make a final decision. has changed his life and the world around him. by giving. hope. and love to so many children. nikolai the very work on. tape.

would be so much brighter if you move about song from funds to impression so. please friends don't talk t.v. dot com. wealthy british style. that's not on the title. market why not come to. find out what's really happening to the global economy with mike stronger for a no holds barred look at the global financial headlines tune into cars a report. and

i welcome back the beautiful act from the arab spring together with desperate street battles and debt hit europe plus heated presidential races both in russia and the u.s. as the new year is knocking at the door we look back now at the uneasy legacy of twenty twelve. by now what critics have to point it while has reached its and along with the ny encounter. but it looked more like this . a decade of war is a. good year for a new. well we're still here and when it comes down to it the world not only didn't end but very little changed in twenty twelve we have the same challenges facing the globe the same conflicts preventing peace the same policies hampering solutions and many of the same people in power as we come

into twenty thirteen so what will twenty twelve be remembered for let's take a look back. at some in gaza their world did end when israel launched a short but deadly campaign in response to rockets fired by hamas after one of their leaders was assassinated us solidly backed israel but critics claim the use of disproportionate force has become too common a practice for us really defense force journalist also being targeted and children becoming casualties it has the same policy if you like as the united states with regard to collateral damage that it's happy to injure dozens of palestinian men women and children as long as they can kill one person who might have helped fire a rocket into israel shortly after a cease fire palestine celebrated gaining u.n. nonmember status but it's still a long way from statehood as is the region from

a peaceful two state solution between israel and palestine this while conflict continues to rage in neighboring syria you know that russia trying to possibly stay running his country. he has to go assad must go. to demands and predictions that syria's president would fall in twenty twelve went on for fulfilled he sat down for an exclusive interview with r.t. well into the year insisting he would not give up as the push for regime change continued and terror reigned in his country i'm not popular as in me but with a quick political point of the country i'm sick and i mean. i made in syria and i have to be visited but it's going to be deemed everything from civil war to sectarian fighting to terrorism to genocide syria stay the center of a media war through out twenty twelve with unconfirmed atrocities on both sides haunting the web and only one side taking the brunt of the blame for assad is crazy

he's a brutal dictator reese killing his own people this is the same narrative that we've heard about gadhafi. but we didn't hear much about libya in two thousand and twelve on most networks or from western officials not until the aftermath of regime change there and the terror that ensued went too far the u.s. ambassador and embassy staff were killed in benghazi in september the most significant event two thousand and twelve is the failure of nato to follow up on its on its libya momentum to create a forced regime change through proxy. mercenaries in syria and the fact that russia and china and iran stood firm on. the entire time table that nato had in mind iran this destabilization. and now the entire arab spring scenario is. it's not disintegrate it's becoming

a nightmare one that spread to western allies in the region like bahrain where mass protests arrest and even death haven't provoked much global media coverage or any push for democracy. instead provocations like the film the innocence of a muslim made headlines and incited outrage across the arab world funded in the u.s. and considered highly offensive to islam the movie didn't go over well in states now run by islamist after post revolution polls in egypt and tunisia. u.s. embassies were left in shambles as flags burned and freedom of speech was back on the debate table tonight the film was banned in some countries like russia and defended by others like the states as a protected right of expression a right not awarded to whistleblowers like julian assange who had a busy year and. he was granted political asylum by ecuador after being released on

bail while the awaiting a british court's decision on his extradition to sweden for most of twenty twelve assan to remain under house arrest but still managed to find a way to leak and change the world tomorrow his groundbreaking exclusive interview show premiered on r t was on sat down with guests shunned by the mainstream media like hezbollah hassan nasrallah an internet freedom activist the cypherpunks the future of the internet i think i have no journalist with the salt in the world working today has not used a wiki leaks cable whether it be at the lowest level of covering their local health center to the idea of schools a case and that alone geopolitics still many journalists slammed the songes work on r t and he continues to be a man the west and mainstream media love to hate while he remains holed up at the ecuadorian embassy in london fearing u.k. officials will grab him the moment he steps outside.

protests ripped across europe in two thousand and twelve as the euro crisis worsened leaving many no choice but to go out onto the streets and so many people are becoming desperate people of god getting angrier and angrier spain had millions on the street at a time demanding the government stop cuts and demos continued in greece who got a forty four billion euro bailout masses were met with heavy handed policing in most countries across the e.u. which was awarded a nobel peace prize in twenty twelve. they ultimately if there are too many protests won't even be able to afford the policemen on the streets and therefore we could actually end up not so much with a violent reaction from government but there's actually a danger of an arche because government itself may break down but it is. not the case in the u.s. where the occupy movement lost momentum this year corporate back media and authorities managed to dull demonstrations demanding economic equality and

responsibility is one of a party of their deal you wait for occupy to expand from its needs and from that. you know usually you write it by the elites as a bunch of anarchist story or students who know how to see better to do this is to organize themselves politically something the group is promising in twenty thirteen with some predicting the old ws movement might have better luck in europe. russia saw protests this year leading up to and after vladimir putin was elected for a third time as president but not nearly as big as what we saw at the end of twenty eleven i think the demonstrations in russia what motivated by frustration the demonstrators had a clear political goal which was to discredit the reputation of president putin to russia knowing that those that president putin and you've got russian were going to win the election they had no choice they. no possibility of beating in the election

so they try to that's why she was instead discredited that used to be icy west just before putin's inauguration a protest in central moscow turned violent for the first time since the recent opposition movement began rallying arrests were made in both protesters and police reported injuries several demonstrators space court hearings on charges of inciting mass public disorder and a dozen more trials will carry on in the new year with the opposition claiming this is all part of a kremlin clamp down on their movement but putin's reelection and protest didn't get nearly as much attention as this. getting hit. with the riots rock riot on the altar of christ the savior and the scandal that followed made world headlines took over the blogosphere and had celebrities like madonna defending them or the russian orthodox church was outraged you know there

is no defense in this case it's simple p.r. lawyers uncorking up on ali fear they're working towards the brand in order to capitalize on it in the future and it's worked some of the groups girls got two years in jail for the stunt which was criticized by the west as too harsh the story made in the headlines for weeks on end leaving little room for stories like this. thank you very much the way u.s. presidential candidate jill stein and her running mate arrested for protesting outside a debate for top party only candidates obama and romney the american system is designed to eliminate political opposition like some of the. tator ships that we criticize the debate makes a mockery of our democracy despite being on the ballot in a not state's to technically win stein and other candidates were not allowed to debate and got almost no coverage in the lead up to elections on duets networks

instead third party candidates only chance to debate live on television was from artie's washington studio i think our founding fathers would be spinning it in their graves if they could see this. in line with polls and projections obama won the election but his work is cut out for him along with other world leaders for the year to come a rough economy growing discontent and conflicts either standing still or raging wild and he's now a party. so i was gripped your attention this year you can tell us via twitter hash tag your messages with the recall to share your highlights of twenty twelve. northern ireland where an attempt to kill a police. by detonating a bomb under his car has been thwarted offices notice the device not far from the highs of parliament before calling in the disposal squad people were evacuated from

a nearby church during the operation pro british lawyers have been rioting in belfast over the last two weeks after the union jack flag was taken down from my side big government building. two people have died and seven others are injured after a devastating landslide covered a highway in southwest colombia it's thought the death toll could rise as several cars are still trapped under the earth some three hundred emergency services personnel are on the scene with heavy machinery and rescue dogs for. the president of venezuela hugo chavez has suffered another health complicate complication related to a cancer operation he underwent earlier this month he developed a responder three infection after the surgery and is currently in a hospital in the cuban capital have ana and the constitution the socialist president should be sworn in for a third term on january the ten. i coming up we meet an orthodox priest who built

a whole village for his adopted children all seventy of them that's in a special report coming up in a few minutes. in the glow of russia's north far away from civilization and history are one helicopter treat from the nearest village. so they still one family have been living here for a long time in tents made of reindeer skins. so having said. lodging runs in

a signal and minutes they also grew up in the but left it at the age of six and never returned they now live in the city in apartment building but still room and their regions was. her was planted here is a dancing teacher. i. was. still his dances he tells the stories about his motherland. clause in a report in there has a one thousand strong reindeer herd when the animal saw the lichen and most around brood is gather the turns and move to another posture they travel hundreds of kilometers in winter women and children for them.